Dra. Anne Mangen, Chair of COST Action E-READ, The National Centre for Reading Education and Research. University of Stavanger.

1. COST IS1404 E-READ
Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation
Anne Mangen, Ph.D.
Associate professor, The Reading Centre, University of Stavanger, NO

2. What is a COST Action?
• Research network funding from EU // COST (European Cooperation in
Science and Technology)
• Funding for four years
• Meetings; Training Schools; Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs);
Workshops/seminars etc.
• Bottom-up, research-driven
• Interdisciplinarity and international collaboration

3. Aim of the E-READ COST Action (11/2014-
11/2018)
• In view of the tremendous speed of the digitisation of reading it is
necessary to develop
• An integrative model of reading
• A way to measure all aspects of reading
• The model and measures will
• Improve scientific understanding of the implications of digitisation
• Help individuals, societies and sectors across Europe to optimally cope with
and prepare for the effects

4. Why is networking through E-READ essential?
• There is evidence that linear text reading on screen(s) is different
from text reading on paper
• Paper/screen affordances might impact cognitive and emotional aspects
• What are the potential negative/positive effects of screen reading?
• We need to identify the best of both worlds (paper and screens)

5. Main scientific objectives
• Coordination of reading research
• Sustained interdisciplinary collaboration (particularly, between SSH
and natural sciences)
• Integration of multidimensional research through a model of reading
• Develop a knowledge base for effective dissemination to all
stakeholders
• Horizon 2020 applications

6. Reading is
• Human-technology interaction
• Affordances of substrates (paper; screens)
• Multidimensional
• Device/substrate (paper vs screen); text; reader; purpose
• Multisensory and embodied
• Tactility & haptics; body and brain

7. An integrative model of reading
• Ergonomic dimension
• physical engagement with a device; haptics
• Attentional/perceptual dimension
• allocation of attention; audiovisual processing
• Cognitive dimension
• Comprehension (at different levels); linguistic processing
• Emotional dimension
• Low- and high-level processes and outcomes
• Phenomenological dimension
• individually meaningful activity
• Sociocultural dimension
• socially meaningful activity

8. The impact of digitization on
• Cognitive measures (recall; comprehension)
• Emotional measures (engagement; immersion)
• During/after the reading of different kinds of texts, for different
purposes
• News
• Study
• Information
• Leisure
• …

9. Extensively interdisciplinary network
• Established research network (2009-)
• Literary studies
• Media studies
• Book history
• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• LIS (Library and information science)
• Philosophy
• Biology
• Educational sciences
• HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
• Funded nationally, regionally and internationally

10. Stakeholders and Stakeholder Liaison Officers
(SLOs; two-three per category)
• Scientific community
• Publishers & book trade (study/textbooks; literature; children’s books; etc.)
• Reading promotion agencies
• Educational practitioners
• Policy makers
• Hardware and software companies (eye tracking technologies; display
technologies; digital reading devices)
• EU citizens

11. E-READ Deliverables
• Collections of existing empirical data on digital text reading
• Scientific publications resulting in visibility in scientific communities in
relevant fields
• A comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and testable model of reading
• Interdisciplinary paradigms for measuring the impact of digitization on
reading
• Recommendations for industry
• Recommendations for the pedagogical field
• A shared European research/knowledge database
• Online publication and networking/collaboration tool (the Action web site)

12. www.ereadcost.eu